


Wants & Needs

by Sumi



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: 5+1 Things, Gen, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-13 17:30:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11189937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sumi/pseuds/Sumi
Summary: Five times Sara needed her brother and the one time she finally got him.





	Wants & Needs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heeroluva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heeroluva/gifts).



**1.**

When Sara’s eyes opened she came to a sudden realization. She wasn't dead and the place Sara woke up in was SAM node.

A thousand questions were floating around in her mind but Sara never got a chance to ask any of them. Suddenly Liam was in her face, expressing profound amazement that she was still alive.

“What happened?” Sara croaked out. “Why are we in SAM node?”

Liam hesitated, which only confirmed Sara’s suspicions that something terrible happened. Where Liam could not answer, SAM did so instead.

“You were clinically dead for 22 seconds, Sara,” SAM told her.

“Did everyone make it?” Sara waited for an answer while Liam spoke into his omnitool. “SAM?”

“Why are you asking for, SAM?”

“SAM just told me I died, Liam.”

He blinked. “I didn't hear anything.”

"I spoke to you using the private channel Alec set up," SAM answered instead.

Before Sara could respond, Cora and Lexi rushed in. Both looked relieved and amazed. “Where's my dad? Did he…?” She knew the answer the moment Cora averted her gaze.

“It was his life or yours and he chose you, Sara.”

Sara couldn't even get a chance to process the information because a second later, they told her that she, not Cora, was the new Pathfinder.

Two hours hour, Cora said. In two hours she had to be ready to depart the Hyperion. Sara couldn't deal with the fact that her father had died sacrificing himself for her in that short amount of time. She was left little choice, however.

Sara grieved alone in SAM node. SAM offered what comfort it could but what Sara really wanted was Scott. They were Alec’s kids. Others grieving her father would also miss him but not in the same way Sara and Scott would. When Ellen died, Sara remembered the devastation she felt. Sara recalled the same feeling when she learned what happened on Habitat 7 but Alec’s death brought other emotions.

She was angry that her dad finally chose to show he cared in the last moments of Sara’s life. Growing up, Alec would definitely fall under the definition of distant parent. As adults, this didn't change. Andromeda represented a chance for the Ryder family to start over. Scott would understand the conflicted emotions Alec's death brought about. As much as Sara respected Cora, she saw Alec Ryder through rose colored glasses. 

Cora had no idea what it was like to always crave attention from a man who was never there; or the humiliation after their father was kicked out of the Alliance. Having the last name Ryder suddenly made them the laughing stock of the entire Milky Way (or so it felt). Sara knew Scott would get it. They'd both been there back in the Milky Way. Scott wasn't here though. Her younger brother was stuck in a coma no one knew when he would wake up from.

“Sara, the two hour window is up. I would suggest leaving SAM node momentarily or someone will likely be by to fetch you.”

“Think I can get Lexi to write me a doctor's note for this whole Pathfinder thing?”

“Unlikely.”

Sara sighed. “Lets get going then.” She wasn't any better but Sara was going to have to be.

**__________________________________**

**2.**

When Cora confirmed that Alec transferred Pathfinder status to her, it didn't really hit her. Sara was still reeling from news of her dad's death. The change in status didn't truly hit Sara until stepping onto the Tempest. Everyone kept calling Sara, Pathfinder. She wanted to argue that it wasn't her name but held back the hysterics that were bubbling just under the surface.

Sara managed to excuse herself to the Pathfinder’s quarters -her quarters- for just a few minutes. She needed time to comprehend this and let the panic attack she'd been trying to hold off to finally come.

“Pathfinder, your pulse rate is increasing rapidly. Should I inform Dr. T’Perro?”

“No, SAM. It's just a panic attack. Let me ride it out,” Sara managed to gasp out between gulping breaths.

Scott always knew how to help Sara through the anxiety when it decided to rear its ugly head.

 _“Breathe sis. Take, slow deep breaths,”_ he'd say with an arm wrapped tightly around Sara's shoulders. 

She could almost picture him doing the exact thing in this moment; only difference is that this was reality and that was a fucking fantasy.

“Sara?”

Sara took a shaky breath, the worst of the panic attack finally over. “Yeah, I'm fine SAM. Still alive and kicking.”

“Under such circumstances, I would be the first to be aware of any imminent threat to your body.”

“SAM, I wasn't being serious.”

“Noted.”

In a way, Scott helped her get through that panic attack. Of course, nothing could ever beat the real thing.

**__________________________________**

**3.**

Like Sara told Jaal, crash landing onto Aya with the Tempest on fire was not the plan. She would have preferred a more diplomatic approach that didn't send the Angara into a panic. Scott would have found the situation hilarious because, of course, he would.

_“Leave it to you, Sis to make such an entrance. You always needed to start and finish things a bang.”_

He’d tease Sara and the two would engage in playful banter, trading comments back and forth until Sara naturally came out as the winner. Being the older sibling, meant Sara had a reputation she needed to uphold.

 _“Making first contact with an entire new species is definitely no insignificant event and Sis they’ll always remember how you did it too… while on fire,”_ Scott would continue, that matching smirk playing on his lips. He would keep needling her about the disastrous first meeting with the Angara while Sara scowled playfully in response to his teasing.

Sara wished she could have that with Scott again. She was starting to get close to some of the crew but it wasn't the same as having it with her twin brother who was there since day one.

He'd laugh at that corny joke too or make it himself. Those were the kind of people the Ryder twins were.

**__________________________________**

**4.**

The Kett were turning Angara into other Kett. Sara couldn't get the image out of her head or the sounds of Jaal's heartbreaking cries. If she was struggling with the news then for Jaal it had to be a hundred times worse.

From what Sara knew about the Kett’s continuous attacks on the Angara, they had committed many atrocities on them. To take their people and turn them into the very ones they were fighting was cruel even for such a species like the Kett. Sara tried her very best to put on a brave face for the crew, but on the inside she was falling apart. She wanted Scott beside her to say everything would be okay even if it really wasn't going to be.

It seemed to Sara that she spent a lot of time yearning for her little brother. A day didn't go by when Sara didn't have those thoughts drifting into her mind.

“Sara, from my general research about twins and a look into memories about you and Scott, I have concluded such thoughts are considered normal.”

“Spying on my memories, SAM?”

“Apologies, Pathfinder.”

“... It's a joke. Being that you're in my head, it's pretty difficult for you to not to see any of my memories.”

“Then the apology is rescinded, Pathfinder.”

“SAM, did you just make a joke?”

“You are correct, Sara.”

Sara laughed. “Not bad for a first time.” 

 

**__________________________________**

**5.**

Any of the exiles on Kadara could have easily been apart of the Tempest crew. Hell, Sara might have met some of them back in the Milky Way, She couldn’t be sure of it but it changed nothing. There was business to take care of on Kadara and as Liam pointed out, they were shooting at them with no intention to stop. It left few options but for the crew to defend themselves.

Sara went straight to her quarters after returning to the Tempest. When she closed her eyes, she could see the faces of those killed. She couldn’t get over the fact that their places could have easily been switched. If Sara were woken up from cryo earlier, she might have been one of the exiles.

“Sara, Drack is standing outside your quarters. It is unlikely he will leave even if prompted.”

‘Stubborn Krogan,’ Sara thought but a hint of a smile appeared despite what she was feeling.

“He is threatening to headbutt the doors..”

“What are the chances he’ll do it, SAM?”

“There’s a probability of 90% that Drack will attempt to headbutt the doors to your quarters.”

Drack was no replacement for Scott and really, no one could take the place of her brother but if Sara had to open up to anyone it would be the Tempest’s resident Krogan grandpa.

“Open the doors, SAM. I don’t think Kallo would appreciate his ship getting damaged.”

“Understood, Pathfinder.”

**__________________________________**

**+1**

Sara felt a myriad of emotions upon discovering her mother remained alive. She could understand her father's reasoning for keeping it secret from her and Scott but Sara would never be able to fully let go of the anger the unexpected news had brought about. The only reason Sara could deal with any of this is because finally, after months in a coma, Scott was awake. Sara no longer had to yearn for Scott to be back in her life. She dropped everything and had Kallo set a course for the Nexus the moment she learned Scott awoke from his cryo state. Sara just wished what she had to tell Scott wasn’t so difficult.

Keeping things from Scott wasn’t ever an option. Even when Sara spoke to Scott while he was still in his coma, she knew she had to tell him the truth about their dad and Habitat 7. Alec Ryder never practiced honesty with his kids and Sara would be damned if she would continue that Ryder family tradition.

SAM suggested the best way to tell Scott would be to show him so when the Tempest was in the process of docking, Sara asked Scott to meet her at Elizabeth Riley’s cryo’s pod. She supposed showing was a hell of a lot easier than telling.

“There you are,” Scott muttered after spotting her fast walking into the room where the cryo pods were kept. “Well, here’s the pod you told me to find. What’s so important about Elizabeth Riley?”

“Scott, it’s mom.”

“What do you mean it’s mom?” He looked hurt and confused; the same emotions she felt after viewing Alec’s final locked memory.

Sara reached out, gently squeezing her brother’s shoulder. “I saw dad’s last memory. Scott, he brought mom with us to Andromeda. Look at her initials; ER? It’s definitely her.”

“How is this even possible?”

“SAM said the stasis froze her disease.”

He placed his hand on Ellen’s pod, eyes locked on it because he clearly refused to look away. “Dad never should of kept this from us.”

“Alec didn’t want to give you and Sara false hope,” SAM explained.

Sara sighed. “It was just dad being dad, Scott. He still should have told us, though.”

“When can we wake her?”

“It would be indivisible to do so,” SAM said. “Ellen is alive but reviving her would trigger the disease, which would prove fatal.”

“We’ll have to cure her disease then. Somehow.”

Scott said nothing. He just turned towards Sara and pulled her into a hug.

Finally Sara could hug her brother. It was about damn time.


End file.
